The idea of
GonGo (Governance-on-the-Go), raised a few days ago by Dani Kaufmann, has generated interesting comments and discussion. GonGo is also influencing the way people monitor elections in developing countries where weak capacity and the lack of freedom of speech and political will prevail. My initial thoughts are that there is a lot of potential to bring accountability and transparency to elections and democracy where civil society and simple technologies intersect.
A
recent report of the National Democratic Institute (
NDI) presents the cases of Indonesia, Palestine, Monte Negro, Albania, Bahrain, and Sierra Leona, where local organizations received “GonGo assistance” to monitor the voting-process. A combo of (i) cellphones, (ii) software of massive text messaging communication, and (iii) a lap-top empowered citizens to report on-the-go about the electoral outcomes, anomalies and fraud.
